December begins...

Little Boy and I went to the "H"ardware "S"tore today bright and early to buy a Christmas tree. Living in a rural area, we have a wonderful hardware store that carries all sorts of goodies. For awhile now we have been looking at the Christmas trees - and there are some very lovely ones, pre-lite, all decorated, fiber optic, etc., etc. But, I explained to my son that we didn't need one of those trees because we had plenty of decorations of our own at home. When we got to the store he was very excited that they had a plain tree - just what we wanted, and that is the one we got! Dressed up pretty, didn't it? Since this photo I've added the red tree skirt. And I was relieved that it was still there because today is Tax Free Shopping Day in New Brunswick (our tax is 14%) and with the trees - they set them up and when someone wants it - that is the tree they get. Just to put us in the right mood - there was even a little sprinkling of snow.
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The store was very busy with the 14% savings - lots of grandparents there buying toy presents... to which my son had ALOT to say. First off - he wanted to know why they were buying toys if they didn't have kids. Then when he found out they were grandparents - he wanted to know how many grandchildren. One man said he had 4 grandchildren, but he only had 3 toys in the basket and my son very quickly did the math and told the man that he was missing a present! Then he would survey the toys and say that certain toys weren't babies age group toys so they better not have a baby! And then 1/2 the toys he announced that he was going to put on HIS Christmas list. Phew! Lots and lots of chatter to get our tree today! And believe me, when my son is excited - the entire store can hear his very high pitched excited yibber yabber.


Anyway, our afternoon project was getting the tree decorated. I don't have a huge selection of decorations, but I just love my red apples and birds - once those are on the tree it is getting pretty full! My Mom always had red birds on the tree and then one summer day I was at some craft store and they had all these birds on clearance - I bought LOTS of them for my own Christmas tree, including a funky flamingo just for fun. I have some musical instrument ornaments that I bought in Germany and then lots of little "presents" - they were a garland that I cut apart, plus some shells and other odds and ends. My ornaments have been packed away for 4 years now so it was nice to get them all out again. And Little Boy? He loves the birds!!! Want to bet that the bird tradition continues? It WAS alot of work getting that tree set up all by myself, but worth it - Little Boy went to bed very happy about the tree tonight! And night-time distractions are a good thing around here because he misses DH so much.
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Outside I've managed to string lights along almost the entire length of our covered porch. It is cold and windy outside so basically I've been doing it 1-2 strings at a time. Little Boy picked out jumbo rainbow lights and they really are pretty.
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Also this week we went to a gingerbread house decorating party! It was hosted by the library - they provided 30 houses for free - you just had to sign up. Everyone brought their own frosting and decorating goodies. It was lots of fun to see all the different varieties! My son sure did have a fun time!
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Baking wise we've made cookies and apple butter bread (did finally get that apple butter made from the apples we picked off the tree!). I made 2 pork shoulder roasts this week - they were $4 each and were good sized too so how could I pass up such a deal? I did 1 in the crockpot and 1 in the oven for 5 hours to compare - it was much easier to pull the pork with the crockpot one. Anyway, pulled the pork and mixed it with onions and bar-b-que sauce for sandwiches. Froze most of that in individual serving sized. Made yummy corn bread, mustard coleslaw and a lime bean salad to go with the pork. I know, I know - a true summer menu, but I can't think of anything better to go with pulled pork! Hamburger was also on sale so I also made chili, shepherd's pie and speghetti sauce, plus I made up a batch of crock pot potato soup. Cooking is very time consuming, but I like to eat good food so usually don't mind. Still, I will be happy to eat with DH again - because of course, Little Boy eats entirely different food than what I spend hours preparing!!! Oh well, I can't stand frozen entrees so I might as well cook for myself, even if I do end up with tons of leftovers.

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AND I have been going to a new quilt group that recently started in our area. First we met every other week but it is so popular that now we are meeting every week. I thought of a project to bring this past week that I could work on without lugging my sewing machine in to the meeting... you will just have to wait for Stashbusting Sunday for that - oh, well - that is tomorrow!

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How did it get to be December so quickly??? My days are so full and time seems to fly right by. So, December begins and we have our tree up - we are off to a good start! I have a feeling that it is going to be another busy month!